Kingwood to Splendora to Kingwood Bike Ride
I wanted to go for a long ride today with the beautiful weather. I rode the “New Caney – Splendora” route riding north along US59 to Splendora and then back to the south. I think this is the first time to ride to Splendora this year. The route is an extension of when I ride to Roman Forest Blvd. I biked 40.47 miles today. The perfectly clear sky and high 70’s temperature propelled me along and the light 5 to 7 mph breeze was just enough to challenge me but not really slow my speed down. The trip to Splendora was with a tailwind and I built up my average speed to 15.7 mph. The south bound leg was slower but I still kept my speed at 17 to 18 mph and the average speed at 15.6 mph.
There was some traffic entering the west bound entrance to the Grand Parkway as I rode to Community Drive. I had to move to the middle lane on the service road because the right lane was blocked by some construction trucks. I couldn’t tell what they were doing but there were a lot of hoses coming out of tanker trailers with compressors running. I didn’t see any workers; maybe the robots have arrived. I rode to Loop 494 at Community Drive and stayed on it until it merged with the northbound US59 service road. After passing the right urn into Patton Village I turned right at Ipes Rd. crossing the railroad tracks to ride the rest of the way to Splendora. I did this for the silly reason of spreading the route out on the map plus it avoided a tight lane where the service road bears left and old Loop 494 goes into Splendora.
From Splendora I stayed on the US59 south bound service road all the way to Valley Ranch Blvd. where I turned right to go to FM1314. At the Grand Parkway intersection I learned that the west bound traffic from US59 runs on the service road to the entrance just west of Valley Ranch Blvd. The traffic light there did not change when I rode on the sensor. After waiting for several minutes I crossed the road and under the overpass where the east bound exit ramp did the same thing for traffic going to US59 south. Again the traffic light would not change when I rode on the sensor and I rode through the intersection when the traffic was clear.
I arrived at the Stripes station at 2:07. If I hurried eating and refilling my water bottle I could beat the Briar Tree school traffic. My Edge 520 when I got to Stripes.
I quickly ate two trail mix bars and drank some water. I was backing riding at 2:18 and made it past the schools without the traffic. The next school was at Kings Manor and I got there in the thick of the traffic but made it through without an incident. I was now back in Kingwood when at 35.78 miles the Garmin Edge 520 decided to freeze up. I pulled over and mashed on many button combinations until it shut off and restarted. Fortunately the ride data was still there. I pushed the start button and it was back working. I did have several phone disconnect messages during the ride so maybe that had something to do with the 520 freezing up. I am wondering what can be so hard for a computer to work and crash. I saw a review of the new Wahoo GPS computer last week, maybe that would work better.
April miles are moving towards my 772 mile goal with 111 miles so far with 3 rides. tomorrow and Wednesday the weather should be as good so more biking in the works.
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